


He who remembers

by ImperfectFantasyWriter



Series: Cisco drabbles [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - obviously, Canon-Typical Violence, Cisco Ramon Becomes Vibe, Cisco is always Vibe, Light Angst, Multi, Other, References to Illness, reference to canon character death, references to mental illness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-30
Updated: 2016-05-30
Packaged: 2018-07-11 04:23:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7028377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImperfectFantasyWriter/pseuds/ImperfectFantasyWriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He remembers, or at least, he <em>thinks<em> he does.</em></em></p>
            </blockquote>





	He who remembers

**Author's Note:**

> AN: First piece of work I've written in a long time - and the first I've submitted on AO3 -, so it didn't quite go the way I thought it would... I just had a lot of thoughts as to potential effects of the finale, this is one of them random thoughts, turned into a rough dribble. Because, Cisco was always going to be Vibe (in my mind) regardless of the change in timeline.. so here's one way things could go for Cisco in the 'new' timeline.
> 
> Also, I'm not sure how accurate the timing/ages match up, but for this particular piece I have Cisco at being about 2/3 years younger than Barry - I think. I'm also sorry for any inaccurate wording involving disorders/mental disorders - much of what is used is gathered as my own research just off of the internet. 
> 
> I may expand on this piece, possibly into a full blown story.

He remembers, or at least, he _thinks_ he does.

Cisco doesn't quite remember when he started to _remember_ , but he had been young.

He would say the strangest of things about people, and sometimes, those things would be wrong, but other times, more often than not, they'd turn out exactly right - for a while, it seemed as if Cisco was just a very perceptive, bright child. It didn't hinder him in excelling in his classes, skipping a couple of grades, taking apart things to create something better. Back then, his teachers would sometimes use the words 'child genius', and his parent's would smile politely - but were more interested in nurturing Dante's musical talents, and Dante would simply call him 'weird', and that was that.

Then there was the first _incident_. He must have been around eight years old at the time, still sharing a room with Dante, when in the middle of the night he had a nightmare - he knows know, it was no nightmare at all - of a red-headed woman, surrounded by a vortex of red and yellow, a boy screaming for his mother, a man laying on the floor, and then the boy was gone in a flash and the woman was dead, laying in a pool of her own blood.

Cisco's screams had awoken the entire household, and he had been inconsolable the entire night - his mother wiped his tears, and cleaned up his face, from where his nose had bled in his sleep. His father assured him it was just a bad dream, probably from too much time spent watching TV, but even then, at eight, Cisco knew, because it hadn't felt like any _dream_ he'd had before.

A few day's later, he'd been sat at the kitchen table, taking apart one of his grandfather's old radio's when his mother and father began quietly arguing over the morning paper - and when he'd fished it from the trash later that day, and thumbed a few pages in, his little eight year old heart stopped. 'CENTRAL CITY FAMILY ATTACKED IN OWN HOME', next to the headline had been a picture of the red-headed woman, her husband, and the boy from his nightmare.

Except, according to the paper, the woman was alive.

His father had torn the newspaper from his small hands before he could read the rest and told him to forget it - that it was nothing, and to stop digging through the trash.

But Cisco couldn't, because he just kept _dreaming_ , sometimes, the red-headed woman, would be laying in the pool of blood, and others, a man in a red suit with lightning across his chest would save her.

His nose always seemed to bleed when he dreamt of the man in red.

About two months later, his parent's moved him into the attic room after he'd woken Dante up from crying after yet another _dream_. It was then that he learnt to be quiet about what he saw. And for a few years, things seemed to return to normal. He continued to excel in school, build his little inventions to the sounds of Dante's piano and his parent's praise - always for Dante, never for little Cisco - and life went on.

It was when he was fourteen, and had not long started his Junior year of High School - the same year Dante was in - that he stopped _dreaming_ and had his first _episode_ during the day. This lead to him apparently coming to a complete stand-still in the middle of the road on his way home, and subsequently being clipped by a passing car.

He still had the scar.

The _episodes_ got progressively worse over the following year, he would see things where-ever and whenever. Sometimes he'd be standing in his bedroom and suddenly be somewhere else, seeing things, a robbery in the streets, a flash of red and yellow dancing across his vision. He'd know names of people he'd never met. He'd mention their names in conversations as if they were real people - Barry, Caitlin, Dr Wells, as in, the Dr Wells - he wouldn't even realise he was doing it until his parent's would ask him 'how do you know these people?' and his mind would blank.

One day, he ran head-long into a young man, and one glimpse of his face had Cisco gasping, with the sound of a gun-shot ringing in his ears, and the vivid image of that same man - Eddie - laying on the ground, blood seeping from his chest as he was cradled in the arms of a beautiful girl. Iris. The man in red, Barry Allen, slumped against a wall, his face, one of disbelief.

Cisco felt as if something had been ripped away from him, and when his _episode_ ended, and he looked into the young man's face, his nose began to bleed.

He ran all the way back home, the beautiful girl's crying still in his mind.

He had begun to _remember_ a different life.. but of course, he didn't know back then.

These _episodes_ began to happen with such frequency that his parent's forced him to see a doctor. Who sent him to see a psychiatrist, who spent long hours talking at him, conversing with his parent's, until finally decided his episodes must have been down to a _'Delusional Disorder'_.

They put him on medication.

They made him attend therapy.

He told them it helped.

That it worked.

_It didn't._

Instead, he just learnt to hide it.

Instead, he _remembered_ more and more. He _remembered_ Eobard Thawne stopping his heart. He remembered Zoom stopping Reverb's.

By the time he graduated High School and was accepted into College to study Engineering he knew who he _was_... and he knew what Barry had done.

He studied and worked hard, and when he wasn't studying, he was enhancing his own _powers_ , because that's what they were. Powers, that in another timeline were given to him by the Particle Accelerator at S.T.A.R Labs. By Harrison Wells - by Eobard Thawne. Eobard Thawne, who knew about timelines, who must have known that in another time, another place, Cisco would always become _Vibe_.

He studied more and more - attended some lectures given by Professor Martin Stein, just to see the man.

He began making a name for himself in the classroom, developed technology in his spare time, patent it, made a little money - and sometimes in between, he'd _check_ in on his friends. He'd watch Caitlin - watch her fall in love with Ronnie - and he'd feel mournful, remembering when Ronnie died in the other timeline. He'd watch Laurel mourn her sister and become the Black Canary. He was happy when Oliver Queen was reported alive and remembered Felicity's smile. Felt a pang of hurt for Hartley when he was disowned.

He graduated College, and watched over them all. He found his way to S.T.A.R Labs, began working for the real Dr Wells - the Particle Accelerator was still years behind in the making compared to that of the other timeline without Eobard Thawne. He finally came face to face with the Caitlin and Ronnie of this timeline, instead of simply _watching_ them. He even worked amicably with Hartley, developed a close friendship - though Cisco couldn't help but laugh sometimes, because Hartley really was a dick in any timeline.

And through all of this, Cisco waited. Because he could never bring himself to check in on one person, be it out of anger, or disappointment, or anxiousness, he never quite knew.

But he didn't have to know, because one day, _he_ was there, outside S.T.A.R Labs, waiting.

Cisco saw him first, saw the look on his face when he realised who it was walking towards him, and when Cisco spoke, he knew that somehow, things would be okay, he knew that somehow, the two of them would find a way to fix what had been broken.

"Good to see you again, Flash"


End file.
